Here & Now

Scott Walker Would Sign Fast-Tracked Right-To-Work Bill

Frederica Freyberg:

But first, amid all the budget business at the State Capitol, the fast track of a policy development that has been simmering in the background for months. Right to Work. This morning Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald announced his plan to introduce and pass the measure next week. The new law would prevent private employers from negotiating a union contract that requires workers to pay dues. Senator Fitzgerald and Assembly Speaker Vos plan to call the Legislature into Extraordinary Session in order to streamline passage of the bill. A Senate committee will hold a public hearing on Tuesday. The full Senate will vote on Wednesday. And the Assembly will take up the bill the following week.

For months, Governor Walker has called Right to Work legislation a potential distraction, but his office says he will sign the bill. Senator Fitzgerald had planned to wait for a special election in the Conservative 20^th Senate District to give him enough votes to pass the bill, but that won’t be until Apriland he says he’s got the votes now.

Scott Fitzgerald:

The Governor is supportive. I think he still probably believes that there’s a potential that somehow this could turn into something that could be disruptive. But I think the members of our caucus, as I continue to talk to them about where they were on the bill, were convinced that to bring the bill out now was probably a better plan than to wait for Duey Stroebel to be sworn in, which won't happen now until late April. I think that there were many people who were like, We're ready to go. Certainly, my experience as leader is when you have the votes, you go to the Floor. You don’t wait around.

Frederica Freyberg:

I'm joined by Jon Erpenbach

John Erpenbach:

Thank you, Frederica.

Frederica Freyberg:

Why do you think that Republicans are calling an Extraordinary Session to vote on the Right to Work bill?

John Erpenbach:

I don’t know why. If he has the votes today, why wouldn’t he have them in two months? Again, I don’t understand what the rush is other than the fact that maybe the 17 votes that he has or the 18 votes that he may have might be a little shaky on this.

There are Republican organizations, Republican groups, Republican business owners, Republican companies that do not want Right to Work. They know what’s going to happen. Wages will go down in the union and nonunion by 3.5% or so. That’s documented. We know that’s going to happen. Some people will lose jobs. We know that will happen. Contractors and subcontractors know that they won’t get necessarily the trained kind of people that they want to have working on their jobs. So there’s nothing really good about Right to Work economically, jobwise or anything. There’s nothing really but downside. So I would tend to think that labor unions and some of those Republican organizations out there that don’t support Right to Work are going to spend the weekend talking to Republican Senators.

Frederica Freyberg:

Today Governor Scott Walker said he will sign Right to Work legislation if it gets to his desk.